1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to musical instrument neck stiffeners, and in particular to adjustable carbon fiber stiffeners embedded within the neck of a guitar or other stringed instrument.
2. Description of Related Art
Neck stiffening rods and beams have been used for many years in guitars, cellos, double basses, banjos, and other similar stringed instruments where the neck, being a relatively long structure, is often weak when compared with the large forces placed on it by the string tension.
Several patents have been issued for instrument neck reinforcing beams. U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,476 (Rickard) discloses a rectangular or I-beam neck stiffening member that includes wood, plastic, metal, or carbon fiber, and is embedded within the instrument neck adjacent to the forward surface of the neck body and concealed by a fingerboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,362 (Lieber) also discloses an aluminum hollow reinforcement embedded within the neck of a guitar.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,888,055 (Smith) discloses a solid instrument support rod constructed of a high stiffness material, such as carbon fiber, wrapped around a lower density core material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,145,948 (Turner), U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,038 (Turner), U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,437 (Lieber), U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,872 (Chase), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,542 (Chen) also disclose carbon fiber or other fiber reinforced plastic composite instrument necks or neck reinforcements.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,405 (Kaman) discloses an adjustable instrument neck stiffener. This design utilizes a metallic stiffener embedded in a main neck part and a tension rod.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,174 (Gressett) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,259,008 (Eddinger) disclose methods for creating an adjustable instrument neck by utilizing a truss rod.